Search engine optimization is a technique in all companies that use good digital marketing strategies to boost their sales results and lead generation.
1) Plan a keyword strategy
To get a good placement on Google pages, it is necessary to start with good planning of keywords, the terms that users type in the search field.
What terms relate to your business? Evaluate the products and services it offers and consider the entire customer journey in the marketing funnel, scoring everything that will interest you at each step. These reinforcements will contribute to attracting new qualified visitors to the site.
2) Have short URLs for your pages
You don’t need to enter the entire title of an article, for example, in a URL. It is necessary to concentrate a focus, extracting the main words from the title to the URL.
In the past, companies put multiple terms and keywords in URLs to a better rank. With that, Google started to consider only what is relevant in the smaller and more objective links.
3) Never change your page URL
We are always improving and developing our services, products, and even the company’s own values. Over time, we look at the old content that we produce on a blog, for example, and we notice that they have a long URL or don’t like the terms chosen.
Right now, many would think about changing it, but this is a big mistake. Never do that! When you change the URL of an old page, you also lose any traffic history, and Google ends up seeing everything as a new page. This hurts your metrics as well as your site’s SEO performance.
4) Pay attention to the title of the page
After the content, the title is the most important point for search engine optimization on a page. That’s because it’s the calling card of all content, showing users what you’re offering for what they’re looking for.
It is rated by Google when examining websites and showing them on their search pages. Therefore, the space must be filled with names, phrases, and slogans that describe the content covered very well.
Let’s not forget about keywords, which are important for search engine algorithms to identify your site by title in users’ searches. It is also important to pay attention to size, as too large titles can appear cut off, exempting information or making it vague. Keep them around 50 to 70 characters long.
5) Create relevant content for the audience
Content is the basis of your entire search engine optimization strategy, and it should be planned according to the needs of your audience, answering all your pains and questions.
In addition to the title, the keywords must be present in the text in a contextualized way, in a narrative that makes sense of your approach. It is also necessary to be careful not to base the text only on these terms, as Google has algorithms that identify these practices.
6) Never copy content
When writing content, it is healthy to research and study different reliable sources to offer the best to your users, but Google does not accept plagiarism. Copied or duplicated essays suffer immediate penalties when published.
In some cases, the page and the entire site can be compromised to receive punishment if the practice occurs in other texts of the same domain. That said, it is very important always to produce original content for your readers.
7) Get external links
In search engine optimization, outbound links are like diamonds! That’s because your page is linked to other sites, and Google’s algorithm understands that your content is so relevant that it has received a citation.
However, your page must be cited and linked from other reputable sites, as their authority is transferred to your page. “Quality is much more important than quantity!” Focus on this thought and build a good relationship on the web to gain good links.
8) Use internal links
Still talking about links, inserting them in your own content to other interesting pages related to the subject enriches the user experience. Google’s algorithm views this in a very positive way!
Remembering that this internal linking must be used with common sense and make sense with the content, as Google can also detect the excess of links that do not make sense with the subject being discussed, which causes a drop in the ranking of the searches. It is worth paying extra attention at this point.
9) Optimize your images
Google can identify the content of most images through its facial recognition systems and other identification patterns. However, in search engine optimization, this is not favorable.
To solve this issue, add alternative texts (Alt Text) on the images, that is, the keywords representing each of them, reinforcing the page content and improving its SEO.
10) Offer a good user experience
Last is the experience that a particular user will have when accessing your site, coming from a search result. Google’s algorithms care a lot about all of this, and the metric that measures this process is bounce rate.
When we enter a page and are not interested in anything it has to offer, without clicking any buttons and closing the window after a short time, Google understands that this experience was negative. The content was not valid for the user. If this happens frequently, the ranking in search results tends to get worse and worse. Therefore, in addition to good content, the interface must be built to provide the best experience.
So, would you like to learn a little more about search engine optimization? This is a field where there is always something to learn, as algorithms always update themselves and change their criteria.